The end is neigh

As the end of second year has dawned on us i feel like i have accomplished something. Don't know what it is though.

A better understanding of games?

Playing more games?

Or even the fact after a difficult year i have still managed to keep to deadlines?

But one thing i have learnt this year, is not in education, but in myself. If anything, the one thing that i have accomplished is despite having Dyslexia and Semantic pragmatic, and the sudden passing of my dad, i have proved that i am a strong person and that even others in my position can achieve achievement too.

So I'm looking at second year as an experience and continue to live strong and tackle lifes challenges.

I would like to thank my friends for being there for me, the help and support. Without them and the the rest of my classmates (lol) i wouldn't be as sane as i am now.

And thanks to the tutors for being understanding of my situation and the advice and guidance they have given me throughout the year.

Peace out.

It's in the game!

Lately i have been having great urges to brave the gaming world and take it on.

I'm not much of a gaming person but after playing Tekken 6 around a friends house i started to get interested. So i went out to the outdoor market and looked through their games and picked up a copy of 'Soul Calibur III' and 'Devil may cry'. And what an experience! Kicking guys asses in the comfort of my bedroom, and shooting bloody puppets has never felt so good and I'm enjoying it!

Then the other day i was looking through the games again whilst looking at the wii games because i wanted to do something nice for my sister (don't know why, it was another urge) so i ended up buying 'Nights'. Also through out the PS2 games, i found Jak and Daxter and Kingdom Hearts II. I know what your thinking and i don't care, I'm expanding my horizons and having an experience. Bottom line is, is that I'm buying games and its making me happy. They are helping me understand the course a lot more.

Cometh the Repo man!

Oops wrong one. But he is truly frightening. You don't want to have your organs repossessed by this guy...


This is the Repo man I'm talking about :D Y SO SRS?

Movie review V

Gee whizz it's been a good 2 months or so since i last did a review. This should be interesting.

'Enemy at the gates'
Another war movie but interesting. There was a lot of suspense and action and there were ideas to be made from it in the game sense. I had to lol at the fact the dvd kept dying and we went to the labs to finish it but everyone decided to go on call of duty and have our own 'enemy at the gates' battle.

'Below'
Set under water for a change and really good. Hurray for insanity. It was almost like playing Phoenix wright and guessing who did it. As the movie went on there was suspense as a lot of things were happening and when you think you figured out who did it, they were dead. It was good to watch.

'The jacket'
This was one of those 'WTF' movies. It was full of strangeness, hallucinations and even time travel. It felt depressing and a little weird to follow.

'12 monkeys'
There seems to be a theme going on here... I think mike is trying to tell us this is where were heading if we don't leave now. Again interesting, and i found it a little awkward to follow.

'Leon'
Now this is more like it. A good movie and no giant lizard in sight. We watched the directors cut version and i thought it was good. The lass was a peach and really made the movie more entertaining.

'Monty python and the holy grail'
...What? Of all the movies shown, this one was the most queer. The only other Monty python movie I've seen and it seemed to have gone on for ages. But i have to admit that it was good on some parts. The ending was a massive downer.

Go team SHOCK!HORROR!

Lol. I'm happy with my group. I'm with awesome people (not saying everyone else isn't).

I was so stoked a week ago but now I'm not too sure. It's mainly for the theme: 'Resident evil'. I haven't played the game and i don't like them kind of games. So I'm stumped. But it's not going to stop me from trying.

The queens building was a brilliant idea considering the 3rd years said they get kicked out of everywhere in town. I like the layout of the queens and after yesterday when we got to the 3rd floor it gave me a better perspective of the building and what we found gave me ideas.

So while I'm panicking over the project i think it'll be a great experience for me to work with people i ACTUALLY know and can easily get along with.

Something different

Ok i am going to pull out of the negatives this time and tell you my evil plan.

I am planning on writing a fantasy novel. There is no final storyline yet because i keep changing it and adding to make it work. My aim is to make something out of this world with new and improved cliques. I'm tired of listening, reading and watching the same old thing it is becoming predictable. Theres a limit to what can be done, you can come up with amazing characters and ideas but at the end of the day it will fall into the same categories.

My story is based in another dimension. There's two sides to this world, light and dark. a groups of mixed youths and adults go on a hunt to find the villain who destroyed cities looking for something. The group soon find themselves on the run and in a race to find the thing the villain is looking for before it does. It's a journey through out the worlds in a race against time to save lives.

Thats a jist of it but it still needs work. So watch this space...

In other news: More Avatar...

Everyone has been saying how awesome the movie was and i began to hate it without seeing it. You should know by now that i am a tough movie critic and now I'm shredding movies apart pointing out how good the CGI is and if humans can do the same stuff as the CGI characters, which is no.

I finally go and see it in 3D cos there were no 2D screenings. Not only was i sat 3 rows from the screen but i began to get bored of the movie. Don't get me wrong it was good, the CGI was good but it wasn't quite there. I don't like long movies because i start fidgeting and wish i was else where, no matter how much i want to watch the movie.

So I've seen it so wheres the problem?

The answer is in the news.

Most watched movie. Most expensive movie. Best CGI. ECT...

Shut up! I don't care. It wasn't that amazing. And to be fair i might never want to watch it again. And stop boasting about it on the Internet! No one wants to know how to make themselves look like a Navi.

Also i was told that theres a forum on Avatar and people are saying they want to commit suicide so they can go to Pandora. What?

Oh well till the next rant on the next 'big' thing.

Are you a mass murderer?

Watch this if you are thinking about becoming one.

Youtube vid

Aimees must see movies.

I have seen a lot of movies in my life time and 70% of them disappointed me, and 5% make my DVD collection.

Movies are being repeated all the time. Its the same as another, but with a different title and characters. Which is why we are now getting ridiculous names in which some don't have anything to do with the movie.

So i am going to give you a List of movies i think are worth a watch:

Cloverfield It was like watching 'The Blair witch project' because both movies involve a person recording the events through a camera. This kept me in suspense all the way through. Although the monster attack was quite random it was the fact the actors played well in believing that it was actually happening. I now don't want to go to Manhattan in case of a monster attack.

Repo! The genetic opera It was worth the wait to see this. Not only can you laugh but you can also see Paris Hilton in her natural environment. All we need now is David Attenbrough. It is a musical, and there is gore. Death, disaster, woes and betrayal make this movie a winner. Just so you know Repo is set in the future where organ transplants are available to everyone. If you don't keep up with the payments then the founder of GeneCo who supplies the organs will send out the Repo man and he will take that organ.

Edward Scissorhands An old classic and done by Tim Burton. Whats to say about this except its brilliant. Tim Burtons movies are always good. Look out for the witchfinder general Vincent price.

Sweeny Todd Wow second TB movie, and more Johnny Depp. Love this because it is dark. And Alan Rickman is in it.

Legally Blonde Lol, as if this made my collection but after watching it a second time i bought it. Why? Because believe it or not it shows me i can do anything everyone else does. It's like I'm Elle woods doing law that she didn't want to do but managed to turn it around and become a brilliant attorney. So this is worth a watch.

Lord of the rings: two towers I hate LOTR but the second is my fave. The design, sets and characters strike me and i think its alright.

The Nightmare before Christmas Wow a record. TB #3. A Tim classic. And really does give me the willies. The clown and the young kid with his eyes sewn shut scare the hell out of me.

Jurassic Park All are brilliant, and really done well. The animatronics are really awesome and intrigue me.

Beauty and the beast Surprise, surprise, another Disney movie. And frankly my fave movie of all time. I love the moral behind it of how not to judge a person based on their looks. I am awaiting for the dvd release this year.

Law abiding citizen This is a new one for me. Something i wouldn't normally watch but after watching it with my boyfriend I'm glad i did. The crimes the guy committed were awesome, each one carefully thought out and the twist at the end was brilliant.

Thats all folks!

Welcome 2010

Wow it's been a decade already?

I think it's time to reflect what i have achieved.

2000- Started secondary school
2005- Received a blue Peter badge thought the post for a story on the 4000th episode.
2005- Sort of started college but had to study a GCSE to get more grades.
2006- Finally started first year of college.
2007- Got an award for progress in Psychology
2008- Started uni.

Wow very little happened there but my biggest achievements were the blue peter badge and getting to uni.

Where theres greatness there will be some saddness.

2001- 9/11 The destruction of the twin towers.
2002- 9/11 exactly a year later my nanna loses her battle with cancer... The day before my birthday. I was about 14.
2005?- My grandad, then a couple of months later my auntie both passed away. My aunt was about 43.
2008- The cat my sister named died after eating poison.
2009- To add to my misery i find out i have Dyslexia and semantic pragmatic. Shall i never be happy again!
2009- My dad passed away, only 49. Then MJ.

But i have lived through it and my biggest hurdle is my dad, and it's really taken its toll.

I try not to let anything get to me but to be honest i am a very emotional person when things don't go my way, whether its breaking my routine or not going my way i will get upset.

Thank you all for being there and helping me and also giving me a good time even if we just talk and i come over and bother you!

AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Remeber how to 'Reboot'?

Oh hell yes, Reboot is back baby!

I have just finished downloading the series including a special of how it was created :D

If you don't know what reboot is i don't blame you. It's the first CGI animated series created (followed by Toy-story being the first CGI animated movie).
The story takes place inside a computer system that its inhabitants call 'Mainframe'. It's Good vs Evil as the main character, Bob, fights a virus called 'Megabyte', from taking over Mainframe.

During the series a warning of an 'Incoming game' where the user (person operating the computer ie you) is loading a game. Bob tries to bet to the game to defeat the user in order to save Mainframe as where-ever the game is played in Mainframe and the user wins, that part of Mainframe is destroyed (yet the computer still works).

It is better to watch rather than have me attempt to explain it.

After watching a few episodes i have finally convinced myself it is made in max/maya. And you can tell.

Hey, itsa Mario! And whatsa that douchebag dooina here?

Title is in my worst italian accent eva!

Last night i was around my boyfriends. He had a few friends round who brought a dvd round. Knowing the movies they watched were bogus and boring i decided to give it a go.

The movie was called: 'King of kong: A fistful of quarters'.

Strange but it shows how competitive a little game can be. Set out as a documentary, it follows a young man called Steve Wiebe who has a strong ambition to beat the top score on a Donkey kong jr arcade game. During the movie the biggest douchebag of a sore loser pops us with a sour look on his face if your not talking about him and him alone.

It was an experience watching it, and i urge you to do the same as well even if you haven't seen it. Just be aware that you will be in a debate at the end of it like we did last night.

The features are good as well, especially the 'Really, really short history of Donkey kong' it is literally short.

Movies and games will never be the same again.

A lot of students are going to be now saying: 'Since taking game art i now appreciate and understand how much goes into special effects in movies and games'.

Well along them lines anyway.

Before coming to uni i only knew so little of what went into the special effects in movies and even how the movie was made. Dvds i had with special features? Never touched them. I refused to see how the movie was made and how they did the special effects because it would spoil this special feeling i had towards the movie. Since we watched the special features in Black hawk down last year, i find myself more intrigued to go through my entire dvd collection and watch the ones with special features. Now i know how the special effects are done, i can't watch a movie without yelling at the tv 'as if i have to be that good', 'that is insane', 'that's gotta take forever to do' and 'check out the textures'.

One movie was interesting because you would see most of the special effects since they hadn't been filled in yet. Unfortunately it was a pirate copy but it just showed you how much special effects went in a movie.

Games are completely different. Although i was and still am scared of playing them i now see them in a completely new light. EVERYTHING is pain-staking made. Learning from first hand i found how the characters, environment and odd objects are made. But there is more to it that making and colouring, theres lighting, cameras, rigging, animation, the list is endless. With every game i have played recently i have been looking at repeated textures, which are high and low poly characters and environments.

Some of that may of made sense but to summarise:

I have been looking at movies and games in more depth of how it's made, looking at special features on dvd's, and i don't play games anymore because I'm more interested in repeated textures.

Taylz of a diary I

I thought that the idea of keeping a diary once in a while about how we use our time during the day was a genius idea. So heres my first page.

Friday 17th November 2009

I got up at 10:25 am. After an hour of trying to wake myself up i decided to do the worse thing i could do or my OCD and take out the rubbish. 5 bags worth. After the lift failed i had to drag the bags (all of them at once) down narrow corridors, 3 flights of stairs, 2 bags decided to split, rubbish flew everywhere but i just got on with it. After a nice shower i went to the SU for an errand and went to get lunch.

At 1:00pm i open 3Ds studio max 9 to do work, just opened my file and it froze. So restarted and reopened and did work for at least 3 and a half hours. I then had my tea and watched cartoons i had on my hard drive for 2 and a half hours before leaving for Poi society at 8:30pm at Bede park. Towards the end of my time at the poi society, me and my boyfriend walked for a bit to get warm and we ended up going to the bowstring bridge that was being taken down. That wasn't a pleasant sight to be honest. Then we followed the road around and walked down the canal where i decided to go back to my flat.

The end <3

Movie review IV

Welcome to the second year selection :D

'Sexy beast'
Gave us a few laughs especially the motormouth, jeez was he good. Gave the word 'pee freely' a whole new meaning. Not sure what to think about it on a whole but it was interesting.

'Manhunter'
Possibly the only film i can't remember that the hell happens in it. But I'm guessing it was alright.

'Trespass'
This was a good movie. The main set at the warehouse was realllllllly good, everything happened there, complete with gangsters and a hobo. The set itself was highly detailed, almost how you would find a run down abandoned warehouse in real life. The fight to retrieve the treasure and to survive was intense.

'Identity'
Mike you have done it again. Just like the Mist, they were a lot of people talking afterwards, and even talk about getting it on DVD. My kind of movie with a psychopath, blood and gore. It was a good movie with a good storyline. The set was simple, the characters were brilliant and twists at every corner. It was that kind of movie where it was hard to follow until at the end when we find out that what we saw was a dream based on an actual event.

'Black Hawk down'
This seems familiar, have i seen this before? Because Mike was ill Chris took over. I was expecting a different movie but at the end of the day it was a unanimous vote since the first yrs haven't seen it and Chris wanted to show them the extras. Lol from what i saw all the 2nd yrs (and possible 3rd) got up and left.

Movie review III

Lol, this one is soooooooo overdue. I hadn't realised i didn't finish the movie review for yr 1.

Right lest get started.

'United 93'
Just taking a step back with this one even though it was in my last review but i was seriously unwell to watch it. But i did go to the library and took it out which was a big mistake. Why? It was unpleasant to watch. It was the kind of movie that upsets you and makes you think why people would do such a terrible thing. The contents were executed really well. It was long winded at times but it was setting the mood that something horrible was going to happen. At the end where the plane takes a nose dive and the viewers felt as though they were in the cockpit at the time it happened was the scariest part i think. But it shows you what the world is capable of.

'Black Hawk down'
Not much of a war fan and i try to stay clear of them. BHD was different. Not only were the CGI done really well but the fact that the set, the people and effects were amazing. It was worth to watch the movie then to watch features at the end. On a whole it was a good movie, and it just made my DVD list and that's a bloody hard thing to achieve, I'm that picky.

'Saving private Ryan'
Again another movie i missed and had to take out. On a whole it wasn't too bad but that's 3 hours I'm not getting back. I don't know what to say about this movie apart from the settings were really good and the half hour long shooting at the beginning was good.

'Local hero'
Appeared on the news a couple of days ago for reasons i can't remember. Not overly exciting but it does show how a community works and strives to save their home. And the obsession of the sky and the aurora borealis.

And that is the end of First year movies.

On to year 2!!!

Audery Kawasaki

If you haven't already heard her name you should.

I love her work, not only has it got a manga feel to it but it is also influenced by art nouveau. She workes a lot on wood panels which i find unusual but it give this brilliant effect.

In my last year of GSCE in fine art, a friend of mine did her project based on Kawasaki and her final pieces looked amazing. Unfortunatly i don't have pictures of her final pieces but they weren't far off Kawasakis work.

Heres are a few examples of Kawasakis work and her website

Love, peace, death and a loss of your innocence.

I was watching this anime called 'Macademi Wasshoi' (Magicians academy) and there is one episode that makes your eyes burn, send shivers up your spine and guaranteed you will never look at angels or the french the same way again. Ok that was a little exaggerated but it's along them lines.

I recommend you watch it to the end past the credits. But i will warn you it is 30 mins long but it's worth it for a laugh. I seen it 5 times because its that good and even better in Japanese.

Just a little side note: The robot boy that appears at the beginning has a swans head on his head, that was from the previous episode.

Enjoy.

Macademi Wasshoi episode 5 - youtube

(P.s: This is a 3 parter, i couldnt get the whole episode up)

(C) to Hirumamo5 for uploading the video.

Of art and creation

Since Mikes lecture on creativity and art, it made me wonder what makes art. Is it the old masters, portraits, landscapes or randomness in contemporary art? There is no right or wrong answer as i have learnt over the years since GCSE fine art. Art can be anything because everything is a thing of beauty to someone.

Personally i love the old masters. Theres nothing i like more than to be jealous of their work with beautiful painted figures, amazing quick brush strokes, awsome blending and intricate detail. That is something i would love to do but even i have limits, even the limits won't stop me from trying. I also believe that anyone can accomplish this if they tried. Heck way back when in China, painters would get kids who had little or no experience to paint the oriental designs we see today.

What we don't realise is that we improve more everyday. Your a better person than you were yesterday. Like on the advert (forget which one) it said 'do something everyday that scares you.' So my advice (as well as the industries) 'Draw something everyday'. Carry a sketch book with you so you can sketch something good you can see or if you have a good idea. And keep a camera handy you may never know where the next best thing is going to come from. I have said my piece so now i will leave you now and create magic wonders on a piece of paper.

I read a big peoples book!

*sobs* Why...WHY?

Okay tantrum over. The other day i decided to hunt down 'Mortal engines'. 3 times i forgot the guys last name. But either way i bought the book. Last book i bought was Harry Potter 7, and i was there for the grand unveiling which was a nightmare and the book was crap. 1 day and 2 hours it took me to read it. But enough of that. But i am not a huge fan of reading, i hate reading unless the book i'm reading is a manga, me lykes pictures :D

To my surprise i wanted to read 'Mortal engines'. So curled up in bed and read the first page... God help me did i like it! One more chapter and i'm going to bed... Oh just one more it's only 3 pages. I had to force myself to go to bed at 1 in the morning. Next day i blitzed through it.

One of the BEST books i have ever read!

So much action. So many twist in the plots. It was such a page turner. And i am raring to create these amazing images that have been brewing in my mind.

For someone who hates reading i would recommend this book to anyone!